Cram-school rule changes pass third reading

By Sean Lin / Staff reporter

A proposed amendment to the Supplementary Education Act (補習及進修教育法) to ban cram-school teachers from using “professional” names and require foreigners to provide documents issued by their home nations showing good conduct passed its third reading at the legislature in Taipei yesterday.

The amendment was proposed in the wake of the death of author Lin Yi-han (林奕含), who committed suicide late last month, reportedly because of trauma after she was allegedly raped by cram-school teacher Chen Kuo-hsing (陳國星) when she was 17.

The amendment stipulates that all private institutes must display the real names of all their teachers and employees on contracts and all advertisements.

Registered cram schools that are named after their owners who teach there will not have to change their names, but the owners must also use their real names in advertisements, the amendment said.

Institutes seeking to hire foreign teachers must provide criminal records of their prospective employees to government agencies, it said.

Cram schools that fail to report cases of sexual harassment or assault; fail to submit rosters of their employees to local education authorities; or engage in dishonest advertising face a fine of between NT$50,000 and NT$250,000, and could be subjected to repeated fines if they do not make improvements within a given time frame, it said.

“Teachers who sexually harass or rape students are a disgrace to institutes and inflict trauma on parents,” said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩), convener of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee.

The amendment was passed to meet society’s expectations on providing students with a safe learning environment and to deter cram-school employees from misconduct, she said.

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